Headed up to the Whitefish Divide to see how the snowpack survived Thursday's tropical warmup. Around 4000 ft in Hay Creek wet slides had released Thursday, originating at a rock band 200 ft above the road. Classic case of solar heating of trigger points in a shallow snowpack. Friday morning this debris was frozen solid. North slopes above 6000 ft still harbored wintery consolidated powder (soft in trees and wind affected in the open) while east slopes above 6000 ft were a variety of edgeable surfaces while south slopes were entering corn territory. Some cornices were of decent size and we saw a crown line near Diamond Peak of an old (likely 2 storms ago) slab avalanche in an area I've seen rip previously (the steep NE side of a ridge that obviously wind loads with every SW storm). No appreciable surface hoar present at the surface. We rode a number of planar east slopes between 20 and 40 degrees and saw no signs of recent instability beyond the low elevations.
